I was thinking today that we might have a lot of internationals in our side this season. And then realised that it still wouldn't compare, in that respect, with our winning T20 team of 2007.
That day we had no less than 8 internationals - with the only ones not having played at the highest level being Simon Cook (current Bowling Coach), Matt Walker (current Head Coach) and one of THE unluckiest players never to play for England, of course, Darren Stevens. Only Stevens, Lasith Malinga and Joe Denly from that team are still playing.
I say that but Yasir Arafat is still turning out, I suspect purely for his love of the game, for Roebucks CC in the 5th tier of the Kent League. He currently averages 53.83 with the bat and has bowling figures of 36-12-77-10.
We're going to be getting nosebleeds and not just from the fact we are top. Having barely had 11 for the CC, we've named a squad of 15 for the Somerset game! So who are we going to leave out from this lot:
DBD* Billings Blake Cox Crawley Denly Gilchrist Klaassen Leaning Logan Milnes Qais Ahmad Robinson Stevens Stewart
DBD is remaining as captain as Billings will return to the ODI squad
Blimey - we've left out Gilchrist, Logan, Blake and Robinson!!! The last named can consider himself exceptionally unlucky
Although Zak batted pretty well, when I saw the team, I was disappointed to see him & Bilbo included at the first opportunity. What does that say about our Ollie ? Fair enough, his batting has been poor of late but his 'keeping , flawless IMO.
Billings didn't look great behind the sticks and as for his batting....what's new ?
Apart from Blakey, whose batting has also been pretty rubbish, I thought it might have been time for Stevo to have a rest but no.
Let's hope those who select the team have a serious rethink & consider their decisions carefully for future matches including tomorrow's at Cardiff.
Maybe tonight was a wake up call - it would be SO disappointing to throw away such a great start to the competition....
...especially as the Fanackapans have tickets for 3 further T20s !
Something isn't right with Denly - he's scored 291 runs in 14 innings in all forms of the game this season. He took a couple of weeks off for "personal reasons" and I can only assume that this has something to do with it. The one thing that is for certain is that he can't be treated any differently from the likes of Blake and Robinson when it comes to selecting the side.
Comments
That day we had no less than 8 internationals - with the only ones not having played at the highest level being Simon Cook (current Bowling Coach), Matt Walker (current Head Coach) and one of THE unluckiest players never to play for England, of course, Darren Stevens. Only Stevens, Lasith Malinga and Joe Denly from that team are still playing.
I say that but Yasir Arafat is still turning out, I suspect purely for his love of the game, for Roebucks CC in the 5th tier of the Kent League. He currently averages 53.83 with the bat and has bowling figures of 36-12-77-10.
Kent Spitfires need 132 runs to win from 12.0 overs
Kent Spitfires need 92 runs to win from 6.5 overs
Kent Spitfires need 67 runs to win from 4.0 overs
Although Zak batted pretty well, when I saw the team, I was disappointed to see him & Bilbo included at the first opportunity. What does that say about our Ollie ? Fair enough, his batting has been poor of late but his 'keeping , flawless IMO.
Billings didn't look great behind the sticks and as for his batting....what's new ?
Apart from Blakey, whose batting has also been pretty rubbish, I thought it might have been time for Stevo to have a rest but no.
Let's hope those who select the team have a serious rethink & consider their decisions carefully for future matches including tomorrow's at Cardiff.
Maybe tonight was a wake up call - it would be SO disappointing to throw away such a great start to the competition....
...especially as the Fanackapans have tickets for 3 further T20s !
Denly is absolutely clueless.
No?
Don't blame you.
All 3 England " stars" have lost the plot IMO.
81-5 off 13
22-1 off 4
Labushagne still in
The two big guns, Labushagne and Ingram out